by Nicola Marsh
‘You know I love you too?’
She traced his bottom lip with her fingertip, enjoying his blatant shock.
‘Actually, I thought we had a few sparks, and I hoped you’d grow to love me.’
‘Too late. It’s already happened,’ she said, snapping her fingers and injecting all the love she had in her heart for him into a dazzling smile. ‘Seems like I’ve loved you for ever.’
‘For ever, huh?’
Capturing her face in his hands, he brushed a tantalising kiss across her lips. ‘Sounds good to me. That’s how long we’ve got to love each other, to create the happy family we deserve.’
He’d said the magic words—love and happy family—and Kristen melted into his embrace, knowing there could be no better place than in his protective arms. The safeness he made her feel finally banished the shadows left on her soul by her childhood, a childhood she had yet to tell him about, but the lack of love in her past seemed less important now than the love being offered to her here and now. And there would be time, time to fill each other in on the past, in a future that they would now share.
‘You’re going to marry me, right?’
Kristen pretended to think about it as Nate kissed his way very, very slowly up her neck, stopping to lavish some extra attention on the sensitive spot there.
‘You can’t keep me dangling for ever, you know. I don’t want to be proposing at Maeve’s twenty-first.’
‘You know I love that name, right?’ She smiled; choosing the name had been easy once they had met their daughter. ‘And it’s so perfect to have our little girl named after your mum, especially as she’ll never get to meet her granddaughter.’
A shadow flickered across Nate’s dark eyes. ‘Mum would’ve loved her as much as we do. Now, stop trying to distract me by getting all sentimental and tell me your answer.’
‘I thought I’d already answered you.’
She leaned down and rubbed noses with him Eskimo-kiss style, loving their closeness, the teasing, the one hundred percent security being with a guy like him brought.
For a girl who’d craved stability her whole life she’d finally found it, all wrapped up in one incredible package.
He tightened his arms around her waist, squeezing the breath out of her till she could hardly breathe.
Or was that sexy glint in his dark-as-coal eyes telling her she was pushing her luck?
‘You haven’t given me an answer. What with you threatening to walk out on me after my first proposal, then scaring the life out of me by collapsing, closely followed by Maeve’s birth just as I’m professing my undying love to you, we haven’t got around to discussing the important stuff—like weddings.’
She arched a brow, sending him the sassy look he loved so well.
‘So you’re pretty confident there’s going to be a wedding, huh?’
‘You bet.’
His fingers skimmed her spine, his feather-light touch scattering goose bumps all over, and she shivered, preening under his touch, wishing this could go on for ever.
‘In that case, who am I to stand in the way of your pushy nature?’
They grinned at each other like a couple head over heels in love, knowing there’d never been any doubt about them getting married once they’d declared their love, enjoying playing the game.
‘Is it kosher to marry the boss?’
‘You’re not my boss any more,’ she said, slanting a long, slow kiss across his lips, the type of kiss guaranteed to light a fire between them. ‘I’m on maternity leave as of now, remember?’
His hands framed her face as the kiss ended, his dark eyes glowing with passion in the surreal dawn light. ‘I love you so much.’
‘Right back at you.’
Her eyes filled with tears, and he wiped them away with a gentle fingertip. ‘Still those damn hormones, huh?’
‘Yeah. They make me do crazy things.’
‘As long as you don’t fall out of love with me when they wear off, I’ll be happy.’
‘Not a chance, my love. Not a chance.’
‘So do you want to wait till Maeve’s walking so she can be flower girl at our wedding?’
‘Hell, no! I need to make an honest man out of you asap.’
‘How soon?’
He traced her cheek, toying with a strand of hair, twisting it around his finger in the same way he’d done to the rest of her since the first moment she’d met him.
‘I’m a busy mum. You’re the high-flying CEO who plans everything to the nth degree. How long do you think it will take to organise our wedding?’
His eyes glittered with intent as he tugged gently on the strand of hair, bringing their lips mere centimetres apart.
‘You’ll be in hospital for five nights. So is a week from today too soon?’
‘To start the rest of our lives together? Never,’ she said, closing the tiny distance between them, and kissing him till they were both panting and breathless.
‘I’m kidding,’ he said, desire clouding his eyes in a dark fog. ‘I’ll give you a chance to catch your breath.’
She smiled and dropped a kiss on his lips. ‘Soon is fine. A small ceremony with you, me and Maeve. Perfect.’
‘Perfect,’ he echoed, sliding his arms around her till she had no option but to snuggle tight against his chest, knowing she’d found what she’d always wanted.
Love, respect and validation, made all the more special by Maeve, their adorable baby girl sleeping peacefully by their side.
A family of her own.
Perfect indeed.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-1256-9
EXECUTIVE MOTHER-TO-BE
First North American Publication 2008.
Copyright © 2007 by Nicola Marsh.
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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